Letters on the DoorSept, I Mean Doorstep

Would you please share with us who deeply appreciate your ministry and the whole CREC/Moscow Mood, what you think fuels the gut reaction against all this by the “standard bearers” in the reformed world?
I say “gut reaction” because I find most of the criticisms ill-informed but nearly rising to the level of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Your analysis of the gap between you and Kevin DeYoung shows both sides how little separates us and yet the perceived gap is . . . gaping.
Why do you think this is?
And what can those who straddle these two worlds do to try to bring us all together?

Eric

At the beginning of 2025, I read a number of books on education, including two of yours. I seem to recall a stat that you cited, demonstrating that due to the amount of time kids spend with their teachers, compared to the time with parents or pastors, they are far more likely to adopt the worldview of the teachers.
Am I remembering this wrong, or did you cite a study or survey of some kind that supported that claim? I really feel like I remember seeing that (maybe in a footnote), but cannot find it now. Maybe I’m remembering wrong, but if you have it, it’d be very helpful.

Ben

Re “Both Brilliant and Blind”/Eric Hoffer, especially your last couple paragraphs,
and also “Which Way America?” from Canon Press;
and also the CREC in general??,
postmillenialism and nationalist Christianity,
and for that matter early church/New Testament church Christianity,
rest on a foundation (or bottom floor) of conversions,
individual and perhaps groups of individuals (households, etc),
and I’m sure you agree so far,
but I didn’t read/hear of/don’t see
a whole lot of particular effort
to bring about conversions of sinners into saints
(or encourage, seek, outwardly enable conversions–
whatever more precise terminology your theology may call for.)
If not “Evangelism Explosion,” at least evangelistic seed-sowing?
Should CREC and particular CREC churches put more effort into this?
Or am I missing it?

Andrew

Just an observation about the current behavior of the true church in the USA vs the past behavior of the true church in Europe (over the past three centuries): I think that one of the differences is that when the European Christians fell under intense persecution, they fled to the shores of the USA where they were able to practice their Christianity freely, thus leaving a void in their native countries. USA Christians have seen the handwriting on the wall and are choosing to stand firm because there is no place else on the planet to go. If we could all get on a space ship to another planet and build an exclusively Christian nation there, it wouldn’t be long until the non-Christian’s would follow because they want to take advantage of the loveliness of a truly Christian society (but of course. they want it without Christ).

C&U

I am in a congregation that practices communion annually, but we are (thankfully) considering increasing the frequency. My question is how a church should handle exceptional cases, namely that of shut-ins or elderly members at a nursing home or long-term care facility. In some sense I think that the opportunity to receive it weekly actually makes this less of an issue, whereas for my context, missing the annual event is a very big deal, so special accommodations are more tempting. WCF 29.3 and 29.4 emphasize the importance of receiving the elements in gathered worship, so I’m curious what this looks like in Moscow for those that can no longer attend regularly.

Tim

I hope you’re doing well. I have a question about AI and writing. Now before you get your pitchfork, I’ll have you know that I think someone using AI to write for them is the sluggard of Proverbs 19:24 and 26:15.
My question lies more in the realm of research. There are certain times that research, in the traditional sense, might be a bit more limited due to nuance/specificity in a story. The more accurate an author may want to portray singing, the more difficult it might be to find resources to portray that specific situation. AI is not always accurate, but it can at least point you in the right direction, or give you the gist of something.
I don’t like the idea of AI doing my thinking/creating for me. I think of it as more how Jarvis acts with Iron Man. The Lord made us to create, and to not delegate that glorious duty to tools. I’m still reading up on AI, and I look forward to getting CR Wiley‘s new book. Maybe I’m missing something, and perhaps I’m being either naïve or too optimistic? What are your thoughts?

ON

This isn’t related to any specific post, but I’d be interested in having you write a post or reply regarding the Flock Camera (and similar ALPR’s) situation. It seems to me like some sort of crapitalistic overreach. I.e., not the government doing it per se, but private companies providing such data en masse to the government to do post hoc “investigations” to see if people broke the law. I get that it absolutely could (and almost certainly has) been used for good purposes. But it also seems like a surveillance state sort of situation that makes my skin crawl, even if it were not being abused anywhere—and it certainly has been.
In some states, people have taken to unilaterally removing/vandalizing them and in at least one case the person doing so was caught and then the grand jury refused to indict.
They argue that you don’t have any expectation of privacy when it comes to being out in the public, but then turn around and say that they aren’t using it to do facial recognition. One wonders why not. Is there a legitimate reason not to if what they’re currently doing is OK?
Where does the will of the people fall in this kind of situation? And the 4th amendment? When do we “kick” in such a situation? Should I applaud the vandals taking these cameras out (and consider how I might support it myself) or not?
I would appreciate your thoughts on it.

Jake

I read with interest your recent observation in Letters From the Car Wash that lacking the biblical languages would be a barrier to ministry in the CREC, not an insurmountable one, but a barrier, and that an MA coupled with learning the languages independently would put a man in better shape.
I have no quarrel with the proposition that knowing Hebrew and Greek is useful. Of course it is. A minister who can work directly with the original languages possesses a valuable tool for exegesis.
What I question is whether mastery of those languages ought to be regarded as a baseline qualification for a minister of the Gospel.
My presuppositions here are fairly simple.
First, the Bible is its own best commentary. The infallible rule of interpretation is Scripture itself. A difficult text is not an isolated linguistic artifact requiring an expert to unlock its meaning. Scripture interprets Scripture.
Second, plenary inspiration does not require a substantively gnostic fixation on Biblical languages. The Westminster divines affirmed the immediate inspiration of the Hebrew and Greek originals, but they also explicitly recognized that those languages were not known to all God’s people and therefore affirmed the necessity of translating Scripture into the vulgar language of every nation.
That is not a minor concession. It means that the Church is not divided into those who possess the Word of God and those who possess only a secondhand approximation of it.
Third, words generally mean what they say, and don’t mean what they don’t say. A faithful translation communicates God’s Word. It may not communicate every possible nuance available to someone working in Hebrew or Greek, but that is a very different proposition from saying that the ordinary English-speaking Christian does not actually possess the Scriptures unless he can read them in the original languages.
Fourth, we live in an information age in which the resources available to a minister without those languages would have been almost inconceivable to previous generations. We have multiple translations, concordances, lexicons, commentaries, textual apparatuses, manuscript resources, interlinear tools, searchable databases, and the accumulated exegetical work of centuries of men who actually did know Hebrew and Greek. I have a full shelf of concordances and lexicons at home.
None of this makes knowing the languages worthless. It does mean that the argument that a minister is fundamentally handicapped without them requires more demonstration than it once might have.
And finally, there is WCF 1, particularly its treatment of Scripture in the original languages, vernacular translation, and the interpretation of Scripture by Scripture. The Westminster divines did not construct a clerical caste whose possession of Hebrew and Greek constituted the gateway through which the Church must pass to reach the Word of God.
So I would ask a rather pointed question:
What, precisely, is the biblical necessity for requiring a baseline minister of the Gospel to master Biblical languages?
If the answer is that Hebrew and Greek make him a better exegete, I agree.
If the answer is that they protect him from dependence upon translations and commentators, I agree that they provide a valuable safeguard.
If the answer is that a pastor should ideally possess every useful tool available for his work, I certainly agree.
But if the claim is that a man who cannot master Hebrew and Greek is thereby intrinsically deficient as a minister of the Gospel, I am not persuaded.
At that point, it begins to look less like a biblical qualification and more like an ecclesiastically constructed barrier to entry.
The distinction matters.
The question is not whether a pastor can benefit from knowing the biblical languages. Of course he can.
The question is whether Christ has made knowledge of those languages a prerequisite for shepherding His sheep.
I don’t see that He has.

David

I met my husband at an PCA church, and after moving back to his home town, I discovered that he was actually not all that PCA. He more so went with the culture of our church at the time, and slid back into the culture of his home church. After having attended this church for nearly two years, my husband and I are now church shopping. It was a restoration movement Church of Christ place, and my husband grew up there. He liked it, but finally came around to seeing the major theological issues after much discussion. For example, they would consider me and our children unsaved, as we were all baptized as babies. Believers baptism is a requirement for actual salvation in that sphere, not just a secondary issue of the “when.” There were more issues as well, but this was primary for me.
Church shopping has been positively dreadful. We have tried some non denominational and Southern Baptist churches. The only PCA church in our area is not one where my husband wants to go due to the men leading it, and I tend to agree. We find the other churches quite wimpy and don’t jive with a rock concert worship service. It’s feeling quite bleak.
Cut to last Sunday—we tried a small CREC congregation in our area. I absolutely loved it. The loud booming voices, the vigor, the sermon . . . I didn’t dislike a thing about it. But my husband feels differently. He found it rather odd, and didn’t like the way they did communion. He thinks our children are too young/untested for communion (10,7,5) and I very much disagree and, honestly, fret over this issue. He didn’t enjoy the kneeling part of the service and found some of the men a little odd, as they’re not traditional types in the small town we live that he grew up in.
TLDR: I was a huge fan and felt my thirst be quenched, my husband didn’t really care for it. He’s willing to try it a couple more times, but I’m worried that I will grow more attached. I would love your thoughts. Not having a church home has been very difficult for my faith and I am in great need of leadership and guidance. I want to be a godly wife in how I handle this, but it is made all the harder without help and a body!

Church Shopping

I don’t have a particular post I’m responding to, so I’ll skip straight to the meat-
I have a tendency to go overboard on any teaching that I learn or writer that I read—and one of these excesses, in relation to your teaching (this isn’t a you problem) has been going overboard on the cynical view of modern women. You have critiques of women, but you don’t think wholesale that they’re stupid or evil or anything like that. How can I gain a healthier attitude towards them? I say attitude and not view, because this is more of a problem of underlying tendency rather than intellectual belief—like Lewis’s example of the rats and the light.
I want to become better about this particularly because I am about to go to a Christian university, and while I am not intending to let my guard down, I would like to regain the more whimsical and joyous attitude I once held of romance and women in general. I currently attend a liberal community college, mainly because it’s free (Michigan Guarantee Scholarship gives everybody two free years) and work at a library (I don’t need to elaborate on that one), and I have become admittedly calloused on account of it.
Also, I would like to mention that this topic was brought to mind by reading your son’s new graphic novel of 100 Cupboards, particularly when the Aunt (I forgot her name) recounted how she and the Uncle met each other—it was a lovely scene. Kudos to both the Illustrator and Nate; most graphic novelizations I read are bastardizations of the source material, but this presented both a more accurate and detailed version than my imagination could have ever produced. Hopefully How to Exasperate Your Wife will get the same treatment at some point.
Thank you for your time.

Aidan

I will try to make this as brief as possible.
Years ago, my husband and I adopted a daughter who was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder and wasn’t safe in our home, having 3 younger brothers. We made the very difficult decision to re-adopt her with an agency that specializes in second adoptions. My parents, who are very wealthy and claim Christ, took us to court and gained custody of our daughter.
We, as advised by an attorney and, confirmed through prayer, fled our home state of CA and moved to Texas.
I have forgiven my parents (who essentially mostly came against me in the court documents, lying and slandering me, and later sued us for child support to “teach us a lesson”). My mom has since passed away.
For the first time in 11 years, we had a visit with my dad and his new wife in New Hampshire, where we now reside.
It was very surface level and came after months of talking (mostly my husband and father). My dad is not and hasn’t ever been a very repentant man and blames me for much of what happened, although he has said it was wrong to take us to court.
There is so much more, but my struggle is how to honor my father.
I grew up Assemblies of God and have become reformed and my father disagrees with Calvinism and since his visit has sent us a book on why Calvinism is wrong, which I think has stirred up a lot more I need to forgive from the past as well.
I have been listening to you for several years and greatly value your insights. We have sweet friends who recently moved to Moscow and we are so in awe of all God is doing through your ministry.
Thank you,

Alison

Have your wife review this first.
I watched some of your interview with John Lovell and wanted to reach out.
If you really—and I mean sincerely—want to help young men, teach them that they’re at war. I don’t mean the kind of war you hear about in church. I mean that they are literally a target in a war.
There’s no better way for me to help you understand this than by pointing you to material called, “Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars.”
Good luck.

Robert

I am in roughly a similar position to “Janelle,” from your 2018 blog post. The difference is that I have high schoolers at home, and will have for a few more years yet. I am not sure I can make it a few more years, but I really want to, for their sake. Help.

Anon

If Satan is the “god of this world” according to your theology, then how can your theology attempt to rule the world, as it is doing, without becoming Satanist? And if in doing this, you are bringing not just yourself to hell, but your whole congregation and all of your followers, won’t you be separated from God forever and ever?

Carl

Reacting to a line from one of your ‘Parenting Reaction Videos”
Doug: “You don’t discipline when your child trips over a stumbling block you put in front of them.”
I agree in principle. But let me throw a scenario at you.
We’re at a family gathering and the adults are in a great conversation, such that we stay well past our children’s bedtime. We can tell that the kids are starting to wear out, but the conversation is good and nothing has blown up, so we soldier on. Finally something snaps where my child gets in an argument with his cousin; it leads to a complete meltdown. We go thru with discipline but the child is outside the ability to calm down afterwards. It’s time to make a quick exit and head home for bedtime. I think this is a fairly common parenting experience.
So who’s at fault? In one sense, my child clearly sinned, so they need correction for that sin. But in another sense, I created a stumbling block for my child by pushing well past their bedtime to the point they could not function as well.
I think it’s still proper to discipline my child, but your comment has me wondering. What think ye?

Roger

If my husband says he has cheated on me and that I should go ahead and leave him based on just his words, should I really believe him?
Also, I have no access to his phone or laptop, he hasn’t told me any passwords to anything.

AA

I wanted to ask your thoughts on private Christian schools reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. My quandary has always been that an authority (the school) would be asking the students to vow allegiance to a country that has codified sin. Just was curious as to your musings on the topic.
Thank you

RH

On the matter of sex. Suppose Tyler’s wife decided “intercourse” would occur, on a scheduled basis, once per week to ‘keep him from stumbling.’ Not mutually enjoyed sex, not ‘love making’ or an act of martial union. Just intercourse.
The purpose is reasonable, it seems, but lacks the broader and perhaps more important God-intended purposes and benefits.
What might you advise Tyler if this were the case? Should he continue to have intercourse with his wife while he walks through his plan? Even if the schedule his wife has determined might be a form of her mastery?

JPP

Your Nancy Mace post brought to mind an old episode of “Love American Style” (back in the ’60’s, remember?) In the story, the main character—a guy—is so in love with “Erna” that he has her name tattooed on his chest. Things go south and they break up. Then . . . he meets Miss Right and they decide to get married. So far, he has managed to avoid letting her see his chest in a series of funny excuses, but what about his wedding night? The wedding ensues and the last scene opens as he removes his shirt on the honeymoon. His chest reads ” Phyllis-et-Erna-ly”. Bride is so happy and impressed!

Melody

Re: Nancy Mace & Tattoos
It was a funny providence that the same morning I read your thoughts on Nancy Mace and tattoos, I happened to read this in Thomas Boston, as I was continuing to make my way through his Human Nature and its Fourfold State:
“O that those who are now so desirous to be beautiful and handsome, would not be too hasty to effect it with their foolish and sinful arts, but wait and study the heavenly art of beautifying the body, by endeavoring now to become all glorious within, with the graces of God’s spirit! This would at length make them admirable and everlasting beauties.”
Good stuff from Wilson and Boston, and stay beautiful everyone!

Amasa

Thank you for bringing clarity to so many different topics. I enjoy learning from you. One topic new to my radar is Noahidism. Until recently I had never heard the term. Now I see Israel has a conference scheduled to get countries to pledge allegiance to Noahide Courts. Here is an article about it:
I have been concerned about the influence Israel has over our country. Noahidism looks like an attempt to further extend this influence.
I would be interested to hear your assessment of what looks like a politicization of Noahadism.
Warmest Regards,

Jerry

I am an interested reader of your blog and have been for some time.
I was recently reading (well, listening to as it happens) ‘That Hideous Strength’ and was struck by the character of Rev. Straik. In a conversation with Mark Studdock, he says the following:
“The Kingdom of God is to be realized here—in this world. And it will be. At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow. In that name I dissociate myself completely from all the organized religion that has yet been seen in the world”
“That is what I couldn’t get any of the Churches to see. They are blinded. Blinded by their filthy rags of humanism, their culture and humanitarianism and liberalism, as well as by their sins, or what they think their sins, though they are really the least sinful thing about them. That is why I have come to stand alone: a poor, weak, unworthy man, but the only prophet left.”
It seems to me that such words could be spoken, and are spoken, by many Christian Nationalists today but, as you know, Straik is far from being a commendable character in the novel.
My question therefore is how do you distinguish Christian Nationalism from what Straik expresses here? It seems to me that, in whatever form it expresses itself, CN is doomed to align itself with some evil person/organisation, as Straik does with the N.I.C.E.
In the name of ‘serving Christ’ it ends up creating something that ultimately rises up in opposition to Him.

Richard

Watched the discussion from Moscow and thoroughly enjoyed. Firstly, I would have to say that if I could put myself in the shoes of a Christian who came upon this, without having thought about it much and knew nothing of any of the participants, I would have been persuaded by Paul Miller. He had a bit of an advantage in his academic role in practiced presentation, pacing, and persuasion in this kind of setting, also that his view stood out as dissenting. (Although I disagree, he was persuasive). Too bad Reno could not participate as an RC view would have been most welcome and informative.
Spot on that one’s eschatology goes a long way in “somewhat” predicting your view of CN. Would it be correct to say the a postM view almost requires, even if begrudgingly for some, to support a CN view, and the pre- and A-mil views make it more like an option?
Lastly, I was found it very interesting that Paul in a way did an end around and discounted the CN view by attempting to strip the “nation” from Christian Nationalism with his remark that the “nation” blessing/curses from Scripture simply isn’t translatable (both literally and figuratively) and don’t apply to our modern nation definition. Dr. Mohler and yourself started to respond in the last round table but it seemed the time ran out disappointingly before it could be fleshed out. Do you have a fuller response to his claim? Is this covered in the book (that I don’t have yet)? It seems to me that “nation” means more than a gaggle of people who happen to live in geographic proximity, or a large family group, or people who happen to trade, etc, even if the notion of our current “nation” did not yet exist.

Preston

What are we to make of Martin Luther getting married? Let me explain. CC accepts Roman Catholic baptism and in so doing recognizes them as part of the visible covenant and therefore Christians ( at least in the visible sense). With that in mind his vow of celibacy while a foolish vow, would have been a valid vow. Was it wrong of him to get married, and if not, why?

Jonathan

My church heavily emphasizes a “disciple making” program where one person, usually older in the faith, meets with another in weekly one-on-one Bible studies. The goal is that the older person will disciple the younger through conversion to Christian maturity and throughout their life. The discipleship studies cover the entire range of practical and theological issues. I have a few concerns, especially related to the involvement of women. While women only disciple other women, it still seems to put some women in a place of spiritual authority. It gives some women a church-sanctioned platform to teach the whole counsel of God. Am I wrong to be concerned or do my fears have merit?
Thanks!

Josh

Women will always be able to vote freely. Women are not your objects to toy with. And I thank and praise God for Doug’s age and that he’s in his way out. When that day comes and his old age and hateful heart takes him, I will be popping champagne to celebrate. Hell isn’t hot enough for Doug Wilson. Signed a woman that thinks men like doug wilson should stay home and be quiet. POS

Jane Doe